SandRidge Approves TPG-Axon Board Candidates

SandRidge Energy Inc. – which has faced criticism over its financial decisions and calls for CEO Tom Ward to resign and the board to be replaced – has approved the direct candidates proposed by investment firm TPG-Axon, the company reported Tuesday in a U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission filing.

The decision was made in response to Delaware Chancery Court Judge Leo E. Strine Jr.'s ruling that SandRidge's board of directors had violated its fiduciary duty to shareholders by refusing to approve TPG-Axon's slate of director nominees, and barred SandRidge from soliciting consent revocations until TPG-Axon's director nominees were approved.

"This is just the latest in a pattern of this board of putting their own interests ahead of the shareholders – this board simply has no shame," TGP-Axon Founder Dinakar Singh commented in a statement. "This is the second time during out solicitation that this Board has chosen to waste the Company's resources in a useless court battle in a desperate attempt to entrench themselves."

In early February, SandRidge's board decided it would hold off on approving TPG-Axon's director candidates, saying it believed that any change of control event under the Indentures, or legal document issued to lenders describing key terms of a bond offering, during current market conditions was not likely to have material consequences for SandRidge and its stockholders.

When SandRidge's board of directors initially reviewed the potential consequences of TPG-Axon's proposals to replace SandRidge's board of directors, certain potentially significant consequences were identified that could occur under SandRidge's indentures governing its senior notes, the company said in the filing. The company's board found that a change of control would require SandRidge to offer to repurchase its outstanding senior notes under the Indentures, in the absence of advance approval by the incumbent directors of the director candidates proposed by TPG-Axon group.

"The Board continues to oppose the election of the director candidates proposed by TPG-Axon group, believes their election is not in the best interest of the company's stockholders, and recommends that stockholders support the company's existing experienced board of directors," SandRidge said in the filing.

Karen Boman has more than 10 years of experience covering the upstream oil and gas sector. Email Karen at kboman@rigzone.com.

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